Articles on the craft and business of writing

How to Write a Book: 8 Steps

How to Write a Book or “How do I write a book?” is the most basic and yet the most complicated question I get from other writers.

For fun, I plugged this question into Google and got some really bad advice. Like starting with the names of each chapter. Maybe that works for someone???

Okay, so how do you write a book? I really can’t tell you everythingyou need to know to write a book in this one little blog post. Most of this website is dedicated to how to write a book. But I can give you a few basic steps and point you to some articles to get you on your way.

First…

1.) Read

Then…

2.) Read more

And, no, I don’t mean articles like this on writing a book. I mean fiction, preferably of the type you want to write, but this last isn’t a requirement. Find books that resonate with you and read them. Any books. But please don’t think this means I want you to copy anything about them. Not plot. Not voice. Nothing. I just want you to get the heart of storytelling. I want you to learn how words go together and how characters and plot matter. You can get all of this from just reading other books.

3.) Have an idea or premise

You can’t write a book about nothing. You need to start with an idea. It doesn’t have to be the most unique idea. There are very few truly unique ideas. Usually what is heralded as new is just a new twist or mashup on something that’s been done before. Plus, this article isn’t on writing a blockbuster. Maybe you will with your very first book, but let’s just work on getting that first one under your belt, shall we?

Now this idea or premise may be anything from “all the men have disappeared and women have to figure out how to keep the human race alive” to “prisoners use rats to dig tunnels out of a prison to escape.”

Again, I’m guessing if you want to write a book, you already have this down too. If not, check out some of our creative writing prompts.

So already at step 4!

4.) Decide what type of book you want to write

I put this next because I think it’s good to have some idea from the beginning. You can change it later, but writing a tragic romance is going to be a lot different from writing a zombie thriller. The type of book is going to change everything from point of view, to number of characters, to length, to tone, to… well, everything.

5.) Decide who this book is about

Who is your main character? or main characters?

Before you do anything else, decide what this character wants, why and what is going to get in their way. This is their Goal, Motivation and Conflict.

It may help to do some other character development before completely nailing down the Goal, Motivation and Conflict.

First welcome to the crazy world of authordom. 🙂 What kind of book are you writing? I’d look for groups in that genre. When I first started, I was writing a cozy mystery and joined Sister’s in Crime. They had an online critique group which was a huge help. (There’s an article here listing some groups… I’ll look for it and post in the comments.) There are also a ton of writer groups on Facebook. Do be careful about who you work with, and don’t be afraid to walk away from a critique group or partner if the fit isn’t right. Again.. there’s an article. 🙂 I’ll be back with a couple of links.